Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognize and use common Italian idiomatic expressions that do not translate literally from English.

Lesson Explanation

Genuine fluency requires expressions that cannot be understood word-for-word. Common idioms built on already-familiar verbs:

Avere voglia di + infinitive — to feel like doing something (literally "to have desire of"): Ho voglia di ballare. (I feel like dancing.)
In bocca al lupo! — Good luck! (literally "into the wolf's mouth"; the traditional reply is crepi!, "may it die!" — never reply "grazie")
Costare un occhio della testa — to be very expensive (literally "to cost an eye from the head"): Questa macchina costa un occhio della testa. Non vedere l'ora — to look forward to (literally "to not see the hour"): Non vedo l'ora di vederti. (I can't wait to see you.)
Prendere in giro — to tease/joke around: Mi stai prendendo in giro? (Are you kidding me?)

A genuinely common structure worth knowing beyond single idioms, mirroring the “tener + noun” pattern from the earlier Spanish course: avere combines with several nouns where English uses “to be” plus an adjective:

avere fame — to be hungry (literally "to have hunger")
avere sete — to be thirsty
avere paura — to be afraid
avere ragione — to be right

Saying “Sono fame” instead of “Ho fame” is a genuinely common learner error — this pattern must be memorized as a set, exactly like the Spanish equivalent covered earlier.

Practice Questions